Francesca Balaguer: The accidental photographer

MANILA, Philippines - Francesca Balaguer found photography one week into her MFA program at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco in 2007. She was taking it for Motion Picture and Television at the time, but fell hard for the still image instead. “I found myself on the search for a medium that would best fit my personality as a creative,” she says. She realized that she worked best in smaller, more intimate environments and enjoyed the immediate gratification that taking photographs gave her. Having had to borrow a camera for her first few classes, owning none of her own, she made the unintended switch to photography.

Looking at Francesca’s work, you will right away notice a similarity of approach to the subject matter with David LaChapelle’s work. This comes as no surprise as he mentored Balaguer, though her peers and a professor noted that her images were reminiscent of LaChapelle’s even before she knew his work. “I was kinda embarrassed not to know who he was,” she says, “so immediately looked him up online when I got home. When I saw all the vibrant colors and dynamic energy of his imagery, I was immediately a fan.”

Her work is decidedly story-driven, very much so a visual representation of an imagined character and her character’s story. In her series, San Frantasy, she writes up a biography of a place, and builds everything around that persona. Francesca is involved in all the stages of creating an image—from conceptualization, research, and the construction of props and the building of the environment, to the actual taking of the image.

Francesca moved back to Manila with her husband and two pugs, and has an exhibit called “Blame it on the Heat” currently on view at Vask in Taguig. In this Q&A, she shares a bit more about her own process of making images and her personal journey as an accidental photographer.

What was it like, training under David LaChapelle?

The time I spent in LA at his studio was pretty surreal for me. On my very first day, I bumped into Kanye West and Pam Anderson, I was just starstruck. I never in my wildest dreams think I’d get to even meet David LaChapelle in person, then I was there working for him—it was so amazing.

But even with a dream coming true by meeting my photo idol, my time in LA was so hectic and crazy, it was the very first time I had zero time to shoot anything of my own. I remember going through all this effort to bring my lights and equipment with me from San Francisco to LA, and end up never using them. Some days I would just go home to shower, change clothes and head back to the studio.

How different do you think your work would be had the mentorship not happened?

Honestly, I feel like the biggest influence/impact, the time I spent with David had on my work wasn’t much to do with my visual aesthetic, or anything technical. I believe the whole “David Experience” affected who I was as a photographer behind the camera, and who I wanted to be as an artist in the future.

I think I had this picture of what it would be life to be a “David LaChapelle”, and after being in that world, I realized that, even if I super loved his work, I wanted to take a completely different approach. That’s when I knew just how important keeping things personal was for me. The connections with the people I work with, the crafted touch of it all—the experience strengthened the values I already held close to my heart.

What made you decide to move back to Manila?

Family—plain and simple. I’m the youngest of 5 kids, all my siblings were married with their own kids and I was totally missing out on seeing them grow up. I knew I had to be a part of that. So, when Franco, my boyfriend at the time proposed, and we were faced with the decision of where to start our own lives, we instantly knew the most important thing was to be surrounded by family back home. We moved back in 2011, got married, and are working on building a family of our own.

Can you tell us a little bit about your new exhibit? When will it be up for viewing?

My new series is called Blame it on the Heat and is on display from June 11 to August 11. I worked closely with curator Carlo Calma on this one and it has been a great learning experience for me. I feel real blessed to have been able to do my thing and be as hands on with the whole process as possible. It’s the first time I did a whole series here in the Philippines, so finding my groove and building my small but super reliable team was great for me. It really jumpstarted things for me. Again, I built all the sets, production design, and worked closely with my hair and make-up team.

What is your visual philosophy? What is the kind of work you strive to produce?

I strive to create compelling imagery. It is real important for me to move the people that view my work. The worst thing for me is for someone to look at an image and feel nothing. I’d rather have someone feel a strong dislike, anger, or negative reaction to my work than for them to feel nothing at all. I believe in the saying that the opposite of love isn’t hate, it is indifference—I got that saying from a fortune cookie believe it or not.

It’s been kinda tricky for me since my move back to Manila, trying to introduce my style and kind of work that I do to the local audience. It’s been pretty much back and forth between my work is too commercial for fine art (for lack of a better term) or too personal and conceptual for commercial. Photography, and portraiture in particular have become such a big industry here but the idea of commissioning a portrait just like you would a painter or other more traditional media is pretty rare here. People are used to hiring a photographer, and getting a CD full of about 300 images, with similar poses, and a couple of backdrops, all pretty much coming out of a formula. I work to have my images viewed as art, personalized, created thoughtfully created with a process, and one of a kind. I usually practice picking just one image from an entire set-up, and that’s it. People find it kind of sayang that I go through so much time and effort creating these environments only to get one image from it in the end. This is all because I believe that I should be able to tell the story in one strong image, and let go of the excess.

My imagery may not seem like the usual photography seen in galleries, and maybe sometimes seen more similar to the aesthetic we find in commercial and editorial venues but a closer look at the concept and process of it all makes my work very different. Again, I hate to go back to David on this one, but if you study his history, it took a while for him to be respected as an artist and his work to be viewed as art, instead of fashion photography. I look at Andy Warhol, David LaChapelle, and see how they broke the mold. Again, I know I am light years away from their level but it’s pretty cool to know they’ve dealt with this similar situation I am in, and that there is hope. I feel real blessed to have found a group of people who believe in me and support what I am trying to do here.

I guess the best way to describe my visual philosophy would be to say that I create conceptual imagery, that tell stories and exhibit unique traits of my subjects by magnifying them in a playful, often colorful and fantastical way.

What else do you have planned for the future?

I am going to start working on my next series for a group show on Sept ‘13. I also have a few commissioned portraits lined up. It is pretty cool how people who have seen my work get inspired to have their own portraits taken. They tell me their stories and I come up with a personalized concept for them, and then we have fun and create something different.

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Visit francescabalaguer.com or email hello.fbm@gmail.com for more info. Tweet the author @presidents.